Solar Battle (4)
East start point.
Shirone opened his eyes in a makeshift barracks beneath the Zeta Plateau, six hundred meters above sea level.
He wasn't in High Gear; he was in Mid Gear, on rapid recharge.
"At least twenty minutes have passed."
Because the delay here was long, death carried a penalty.
When he pushed the door open, third-unit teams from countless guilds were refitting resurrected users.
There were three start points in all, and even here over a hundred users waited.
"Yahweh 2."
The Destroyer Demon 707 group, who'd woken in Mid Gear almost at the same time, approached.
Death Gongju's right arm was missing.
"You died too. Sorry. We should have guarded you more—when everyone started staring at themselves we lost sight of our mission."
'We should've died instead of Yahweh 2.'
They were dispirited at how a single lapse in judgment had produced such a result.
"It's fine. Our mistake just means the West made the same mistake. The perfect side doesn't always win. It's about who controls the variables faster."
They lifted their heads.
"If the West slips twice while the East slips only once, that's an advantage. Focus on victory. We're not so weak that our dropping out will tip the whole war." Shirone's words steadied the Destroyer Demon 707 group and they nodded.
"Right. From now on, we won't worry about the broadcast."
The Golden Wheel's third unit rolled up in a cart piled with spare gear and began repairs.
Death Gongju's right arm was reattached, and auxiliary items were issued to the others.
'An enormous logistics battle.'
Large guilds had stocked multiple copies of the same parts to cover the death penalty. Armor-piercing rounds and grenades were loaded, and auxiliary chargers were distributed to each person.
The Codename Strongest glanced back at Yahweh 2 as the Golden Wheel's third unit briefed him.
'You sure you're okay?'
No enemy is flawless.
In the totality of relativity that is war, what phrase could bolster confidence more than that?
'But you can't just say that. How many battlefields would one have to see... to speak with such certainty?'
The Golden Wheel third unit said, "We've been ordered to return as quickly as possible. Use boosters to climb the plateau."
How they climbed the six hundred meters would drastically affect total power consumption.
'So the initial plan is an emergency dash.' The momentum game wasn't decided yet, so Shirone agreed and stepped out of the barracks.
"Let's go!"
Dozens of users ignited rocket engines and surged up the plateau.
—Yahweh 2. Joining battlefield.
When Shirone pinged the guild comms, Aegis replied.
—It's a brawl. If you can't arrive within seven minutes, take a detour and strike the center.
Satellite footage showed the West's top users gathering.
At their center was Yorga's son.
'He's holding his own.'
Even under the joint pressure of the Operator and the Little Witch, he was skillfully buying time.
'The Operator's outside. Tactically, probing the Sun Palace is best.'
Fermi left the choice to Shirone because she didn't know his condition.
—Joining. Going turbo.
A moment later came the reply.
—Approved.
As Yahweh 2 accelerated, the gap with Destroyer Demon 707 widened.
"Whoa, he's faster than us now."
The Codename Strongest snorted.
"It was bound to happen. Let's do what we can. We win the Solar Battle."
Death Gongju said, "Yeah. Whether we're on the broadcast or not." They exchanged looks, nodded, and fired their boosters.
Ahead of Shirone as he closed on the battlefield's center, a familiar codename appeared.
"You bastard!"
The West ranker Visamun Cheon's craft blocked Shirone like an iron wall.
All kinds of firearms spat fire; Shirone had to hurl his body aside.
'Damn, of all people.'
Aegis's requested window was down to three minutes.
"Khahahaha! What's the hurry? Looks like you're in a rush. But you'll die by my hand—"
Before he finished, Destroyer Demon 707 rammed its craft into Cheon's flank.
A thud—Cheon's craft was shoved aside, and Codename Strongest and Death Gongju joined the barrage.
"Yahweh 2! Go! We'll hold here!"
"But—"
Even three attackers couldn't be sure against the West ranker Visamun Cheon.
Destroyer Demon 707 clung to the hull and met Shirone's gaze.
"No second mistakes. Right?" A bullet shield would be fine.
Turning forward, Shirone pulled back even his final lingering look.
"Da Vinci."
As a shoulder hatch opened and energy flowed out, the scenery rushed past at high speed.
At the target point, thirty-plus rankers were clashing.
'Operator.'
Shirone ignored them and charged.
Aegis had died.
It had been seven minutes, as she predicted, and Yorga's son faced the Operator and the Little Witch.
Yahweh 2 reappeared on the broadcast.
"Arrived."
With everyone's eyes focused, the Little Witch's gaze suddenly snapped wide.
"I'll take her."
Even if it was only a simulation, Shirone felt unpleasant at the thought of someone else killing him.
As she lunged at Yahweh 2, Yorga's son grabbed her wrist and yanked.
A contest of raw output.
"Hrrng!"
Outpowered by engine thrust, she was dragged, and a clawed, blade-like hand struck.
The Little Witch tilted back to evade, then weaponized her left hand and attacked Yorga's son.
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!
Flames burst; Yorga's son opened up a defensive posture and said, "Be careful. We're not the protagonists here."
"You—"
Before the Little Witch could reply, a terrible roar erupted from the Operator's side.
"Collapse."
At that familiar sound she turned to see countless rankers colliding midair.
Yorga's son smiled bitterly. "That's impossible to survive."
Even in decisive moments, the Operator had a notorious trick that always let her live.
'Well... the one who got it did become a monster.'
The Black Frame was a crafted item.
To collect all the parts for a stage-seven process, you'd have to circle the High Gear world dozens of times.
Where craft fragments rained like a storm, the Operator trained her sight on Yahweh 2.
"I'll finish you for sure."
Having cleared rankers with Collapse, she meant to show the gulf in skill this time.
Shirone activated the Michelan Gun.
'Everyone's fighting.'
Even if it wasn't real, the hearts of friends who'd sacrificed themselves for Shirone were real.
'I'm fighting too.'
For the first time he felt he was truly living in this world.
'Therefore.'
Resonance.
Shirone's senses seeped into the arrangement of code that formed the simulation.
'Therefore.'
I and the world are not different.
When the light sphere produced by the Michelan Gun trembled, the whole scene began to warp.
Users from both East and West watched in stunned silence as the fighting halted.
"Huh? Huh?"
On the broadcast, it looked like a sun.
Floating above Yahweh 2 was a golden sphere more than ten meters across.
"Ghk!"
The Operator slammed on the brakes.
'What is that?'
Even the original designer of High Gear couldn't have imagined a photon mass that big.
When Yahweh 2 fired the flash, the Operator's AI spat out attack data.
—Bullet curtain level, 879.
Facing a direct trajectory defined solely by speed, she shuddered.
'Evade—'
Before she could finish thinking, the flash struck dead center and a shockwave swept the area.
Paaaaow!
The operator control room analyzing the scene fell silent.
Someone snapped, impatient, "How much? Say it quick."
The lollipop icon lit up.
"Two-point-one million force."
A heavier silence followed; the quiet stretched longer than expected.
'It's not an illegal program. But you can't let the Michelan Gun have this power. It would be infinitely reusable.'
A blatant balance breaker.
'Do we need emergency measures?'
If a single Michelan Gun decided the Solar Battle, users would complain.
'But conversely... if we patch mid-battle, won't that cause problems later?'
"Watch for now," the gear icon said. "We approved the Operator's play to prepare for unpredictable situations like this."
Where they turned their eyes again, a crater had formed in stark clarity.
Users stared at the screen in disbelief.
"My god..."
It was such a massive depression that even footage from altitude showed it plainly.
"Phew."
At its center, the Operator had driven the Black Frame into the ground and knelt on one knee.
"Blocked. I blocked it."
In an instant they saw a black magnetic field expand to immense size.
Fermi murmured, "Did she dump all remaining output into Collapse?"
Collapse used a different power source from High Gear, and its recharge time was much longer than the Michelan's.
'Then now's the chance.' Even without Collapse, the Operator was powerful, but at least the win-rate now looked realistic.
East users shouted, "Go, Yahweh 2! Take out the Operator!"
Burying those thousand voices in his chest, Shirone dove into the crater.
The Operator's eyes lit up.
'Power's shaky.'
Having never died and fought to the end, her remaining output was lower than other rankers'.
Neatly wiping out foes and returning at ease was the Operator's trademark, but now she stood before an enemy.
'19 percent. She can hold for a while. If she destroys Yahweh 2 and heads for the Sun Palace—'
She bit her lower lip and then sprinted for the Sun Palace.
The crowd around the broadcast stirred.
"Wh-what?"
The Operator was running away.
It was a sight never before seen in High Gear history; the shock was immense.
"Is she protecting an undefeated record?"
One loss would sting.
But to run just to preserve that one undefeated record wasn't noble either.
Shirone chased the Operator.
'It's not about honor.'
The reason she preserved her undefeated streak was—
'Because this place is everything. She needed this world to be real, to escape reality.'
To her, defeat meant death.
'She must hate returning that much.' Shirone only partly understood the wounds the Operator had taken.
Death was not trivial.
'Resonance, Da Vinci.'
Metallic wings deployed and Yahweh 2's craft shot forward like a bullet.
The Operator gritted her teeth and ran.
"I will never die."
This world was reality. The emotion of parents fighting every day, the guilt of having abandoned them—those were mere illusions here.
'If you die, the moment you die... you realize. You realize where reality is, and who you really are, the one who already knows it all.'
Her heart raced.
Even a craft that boasted High Gear supremacy couldn't free her mind from the Sun Palace.
Then something streaked past and cut her off.
'Yahweh 2.'
In a split, frozen moment the Black Frame swung, and Shirone's craft vaulted across the code.
'Double jump?'
From far to near in a single motion.
Shirone, avoiding the Black Frame by a millimeter, activated Raphael and Da Vinci at once.
KWAANG!
Yahweh 2's fist fired like a rocket and slammed straight through the Operator's chest.
"Ghhk..."
Her expression was as terrified as if it weren't a simulation.
Across the continent's silence, Shirone held his punch out and said, "Operator."
Her eyes moved slowly.
"Now it's one win, one loss."
Seeing Yahweh 2 smile, the damaged High Gear suddenly began to race.
Thump, thump.